Tuesday, November 15, 2011

FYI France : Online music research revolutions, in France

FYI France (since 1992) -- http://www.fyifrance.com
File 3: Ejournal & archive, by Jack Kessler, kessler@well.sf.ca.us -- archive copy of an issue of the FYI France ejournal, ISSN 1071-5916, distributed via email on November 15, 2011, and a little later here on http://fyifrance.blogspot.com, and at Facebook on Jack Kessler's Notes.

I am having lots of fun using an iPhone to hear and watch and research Hélène Grimaud's wonderful playing of the piano -- she of the lycanthropic tendencies, yes, the extraordinary artiste who in her free time established and runs a wolf sanctuary, in of-all-places Westchester County -- and I was wondering about the current state of music librarianship and information, digital and other, in France these days.

For example Grimaud, originally of Aix-en-Provence, may be heard and seen and found-out-about everywhere, online now: she has a website, there are websites about her, there are publishers' websites, and fan-sites and performance-sites, and Facebook pages, Wikipedia articles in various languages, and plenty of interesting and sometimes very elegant performances available for enjoyable hearing and viewing via YouTube.

The "formation", though, was in France -- her initial "education" was there -- herewith, then, a few of the finest library sites for classical and other music which happen to be located within the Hexagone: only four, here, there are many hundreds -- thousands, if the "disco" and "sonore" and music book collections scattered across France, in bibliothèques and médiathèques and other collections, all get included -- some collections enormous and some tiny, but all vitally-important to any local beginner -- France treasures its music documentation...


* Paris, Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique et Musique / IRCAM, Médiathèque / Les Ressources, Centre Pompidou

    W3: http://ressources.ircam.fr/ (IRCAM, les ressources)
    W3: http://ressources.ircam.fr/?L=1 (in English)
    W3: (catalogue) http://ressources.ircam.fr/catalogue.html?
    W3: (catalogue) http://ressources.ircam.fr/catalogue.html?&L=1 (in English)
    W3: http://www.ircam.fr/ (IRCAM, l'IRCAM)
    W3: http://www.ircam.fr/?L=1 (in English)
    Minitel: (0)1.42.77.19.16
    GeoRef: 48|51|34.62|N,02|21|04.46|E
    Address: Centre Georges-Pompidou, 1 place Igor-Stravinsky, 75004 Paris
    t. (0)1.44.78.48.53

    "The IRCAM multimedia library is a resource center for contemporary music, science, and music and sound technologies. Boasting 35,000 documents, its collection grows in rhythm with the institute.s artistic season and research activities.

    "Created in 1996, the multimedia library is intended for a specialized population of students, instructors, researchers, scientists, musicians, professionals working in the domain of music, but also welcomes music lovers and those curious to learn more about artistic creation and sciences.

    "Books, scores, periodicals, theses, sound recordings, films, and program notes can either be consulted in situ in the reading room or borrowed (how to borrow materials). Our databases provide numerous musical and scientific resources online.

    "-- Our collection houses approximately 13,000 books on music from 1945 to the present (theory, aesthetics, composers, instrumental techniques), science and technology for music and sound (sound signal processing, instrumental acoustics, room acoustics, computer music technology, psychoacoustics). The ensemble is contextualized with the presence of works on history, philosophy, linguistics, and sociology.

    "-- Over 50 subscriptions to periodicals that cover the domains of musical creation, computer music, acoustics, perception, and technologies for sound.

    "-- Over 400 dissertations and theses in musicology and acoustics, signal processing and computer science applied to music.

    "-- Nearly 9,000 scores, essentially works from the 20th and 21st centuries, particularly works from the repertoire performed at IRCAM. Approximately 1,000 volumes of critiques from the Baroque to the modern period are also available.

    "-- Approximately 1,300 recordings dedicated to the music of the 20th century and today and 200 films (portraits of composers, documentaries, recordings of performances).

    "-- Databases accessible online from terminals in the reading room: the Grove (a dictionary of music and musicians), the RILM (International Repertory to Music Literature, from 1967 to present), the IIPA (International Index to Performing Arts), and the IIMP (International Index to Music Periodicals).

    "-- An information database on contemporary composers: Brahms. This database was entirely redone in 2007 and has been progressively brought up to date. It offers numerous biographies and catalogs of works (with detailed notices and program notes). Aesthetic texts written by musicologists relating the lives of the great figures of the music world from 1945 on. Detailed research modules on works and composers make very advanced searches possible. Users can search by orchestra size or musical genre, for example.

    "The IRCAM Archives

    "The multimedia library collects and conservers the sound and/or visual traces of events organized by IRCAM since its creation in 1977. The archives include over 1,200 concerts, other events (conferences, workshops, debates), and 800 program notes representing the institute's memory. This collection (the Archiprod database) is constantly added to with each new event. The complete sound archives are available only in the reading room at the multimedia library for copyright reasons. Three-minute long excerpts can be heard online. Program notes can be consulted in their entirety online.

    "Recently, IRCAM has developed an audiovisual activity based on the elaboration of works created at IRCAM (the series Images of a Work) or on the research carried out in the institute (notably the IRCAM Snapshots series). These films can be seen on the Resources portal and on Dailymotion.

    "Work by the IRCAM researchers (articles, reports, dissertations, contributions to a colloquium, etc.) are referenced in the Architexte database. This database functions according to the principle of open archives; the goal of which is to encourage the free dissemination of scientific publications.

    "Contemporary Music Portal

    "In 2007, IRCAM and other organizations with large collections in the domain of contemporary music came together to create a gateway. This gateway provides a common interface enabling users to peruse a number of catalogues and database, facilitating the localization of resources.

    "The founding partners of this project are the IRCAM multimedia library, the Cdmc, the Médiathèque Musicale Mahler, the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, the Cité de la Musique, and the Ensemble intercontemporain. Twenty other institutions have joined the gateway since its inception."

    [http://ressources.ircam.fr/collection.html?L=1]

    Some history and description of the IRCAM: [verbatim from the website, see link below] --

    "IRCAM, the Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustic/Music, is one of the world's largest public research centers dedicated to both musical expression and scientific research. IRCAM is a unique location where artistic sensibilities collide with scientific and technological innovation. Frank Madlener has directed the institute since 2006. IRCAM's three principal activities - creation, research, transmission - are manifest in IRCAM's Parisian concert season, in the institute's annual festival, and in productions throughout France and abroad.

    "IRCAM is a major center of musical creation as well as being a production location and a unique residence for international composers. The institute's season is full of unique encounters with composers and artists from the contemporary stage and it supports contemporary composition with a commission policy. Numerous artist-in-residence programs result in the creation of multi-disciplinary projects (music, dance, video, theater and film). Finally, the institute's annual festival, AGORA, makes contemporary music creation available to the public.

    "In the realm of music and sound, IRCAM is on the cutting edge of scientific and technological innovations. Research, carried out in partnership with several universities and international companies, covers a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines including acoustics, signal processing, computer science (languages, real-time, databases, man-machine interfaces) musicology, and musical cognition. IRCAM's scientific findings are often applied to other artistic domains (multimedia, fine arts, or live performances) as well as to diverse fields in the industrial world such as cultural industries, telecommunications, computer science, and transportation and automotive.

    "IRCAM is also a center for computer-music education. The institute is a reference point for professional training thanks to its Cursus program and workshops carried out in collaboration with researchers and composers from different countries. IRCAM's educational activities also include the general public and the institute has developed interactive teaching software programs in collaboration with the French Ministry of Education and music conservatories. IRCAM also offers a university-level program in collaboration with the University Paris VI. This master's program, ATIAM, concentrates on signal processing and information technology applied to music.

    "Since 2006, the institute's artistic policy has become the guiding principle for the institute. A series of reforms has invigorated artistic creation and technology as well as their transmission to the public. The concert season has been reformed with numerous co-producers and with new aesthetics. The Performing Arts Technology team has been reformed by moving it from a laboratory to musical and performance stages. The Cursus Program has been reformed by extending it to a two-year program and by working with new partners. The documentation of musical works has been reformed so that the transmission and continuity are assured. The 'Compagnie IRCAM', a company that brings the IRCAM repertoire to stages in France and abroad has been created. Cultural outreach and an journal of the artistic creation carried out at the institute as well as other means of communication with the general public have also been put in place. These changes place IRCAM at the heart of a shared space.

    "Founded by Pierre Boulez, IRCAM is an institute under the aegis of the Centre Pompidou and the French Ministry of Culture. Since 1995, IRCAM and the CNRS have come together to form the mixed research laboratory (Sciences et technologies de la musique et du son - UMR 9912)."

    [http://www.ircam.fr/ircam.html?&L=1]


* Paris, Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse de Paris, Médiathèque Hector Berlioz



* Conservatoire de Lyon

    W3: (médiathèque) http://www.conservatoire-lyon.fr/mediatheque.html
    W3: (catalogue) http://media.conservatoire-lyon.fr/opacwebaloes/index.aspx?IdPage=51
    W3: (conservatoire) http://www.conservatoire-lyon.fr/
    Address: 4 montée Cardinal Decourtray, 69005 Lyon
    t. (0)4.78.25.91.39
    Email: mediatheque@conservatoire-lyon.fr

    "The Library is open to all!

    "The Conservatoire de Lyon has a library of great wealth. It plays an important role in the curriculum of the students and is an essential educational tool for teachers. It is also an invaluable resource for musicians in general, amateurs and professionals, as well as researchers in musicology.

    "60% of the collections are made up of donations from musicians and patrons from Lyon (Ennemond Trillat -1890-1980-, Léon Vallas -1879-1956-, Henry de Chaponay, Ninon Vallin -1886-1961-, Henri Dumoulin, etc.) and are distributed in four main areas, library, disk library and the reserves.

    "In total, 73,000 items are available on loan or for on-site consultation.

    "The Library provides loan and consultation services. It proposes 45 000 music scores, 6 000 books and music encyclopaedias, and 2 000 periodicals. Nearly 15 000 music scores are available on loan. The library also has a treasured collection of instrumental and vocal scores of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

    "Borrowing is free for students and teachers of the Conservatoire.

    "The Disk Library provides a listening and reading room in which 10,300 CDs, 1,500 LPs, 50 DVDs and 500 books are made available.

    "This section has recently been enriched by several gifts and legacies of classical music and jazz music, the music critic Ferruccio Nuzzo, Lyon researcher and jazz record collector Yves-Alain Aimé Fournier (1945-2006), Roger Accart (1920-2007) founder and patron of "Musique du temps" and Anne-Marie Lamy, former professor of piano at the Conservatoire."

    [http://www.conservatoire-lyon.fr/mediatheque.html?lang=en]

    Some history and description of the conservatoire: [verbatim from the website, see link below] --

    "The Conservatoire de Lyon was founded in 1872 under the driving force of Mr. Mangin, the then orchestral conductor of the Grand Théâtre de Lyon.

    "Today classed as a Regional Conservatory, the Conservatoire de Lyon provides vocal, instrumental, dance and theatrical teaching to some 2,900 students and offers over 40 artistic disciplines. Two types of schooling are possible: a traditional program in addition to regular school hours or integrated in class timetables.

    "Relying on a teaching staff of 190, the Conservatoire aims to give everyone the artistic means and techniques to best achieve ones personal goals, whether that be, to master ones performance at an amateur level or to prepare a professional career. With a policy of decentralization in place for many years, it caters for a large number of children in the City of Lyon and its hinterland: each year 15 000 Lyon schoolchildren profit from an artistic initiation proposed by professors of the Conservatoire who intervene in their establishments.

    "Present in 7 arrondisements (adminstrative sections of the city), the Conservatoire promotes a policy of decentralization and proximity to the various sections of the city through, cultural centres, social centres, town halls, schools.

    "It is further intended to cater for young people who, having completed their course in a local school, wish to further their artistic studies.

    "An essential element of its teaching practice, in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Ministry of Culture, is to train amateur dancers, musicians, and singers refining their talents. The Conservatoire therefore encourages a broad approach to the arts and gives great prominence to group projects. Many presentations contribute to these actions, thanks in part to a rich partnership with other cultural centres in the town, and with other comparable institutions in France and abroad."

    [http://www.conservatoire-lyon.fr/conservatoire.html?lang=en]



* Lyon, Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse de Lyon, Médiathèque Nadia Boulanger

    W3: (médiathèque) http://www.cnsmd-lyon.fr/e.php?lsd=7&tc=5
    W3: (conservatoire) http://www.cnsmd-lyon.fr/
    Address: 3 quai Chauveau, 69266 Lyon
    Postal Address: C.P. 120, F-69266, Lyon cedex 09
    t. (0)4.72.19.26.26, fx. (0)4.72.19.26.00

    Some description of the médiathèque: [tr. JK]

    "The Médiathèque Nadia Boulanger of the Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse de Lyon occupies beautiful space in what formerly was the library of the Ecole vétérinaire.

    "Established in 1980, the médiathèque at its origin held only the documents of the Nadia Boulanger Collection. Over only a quarter-century the collections have grown considerably: the médiathèque today manages nearly 80,000 documents using an online catalog accessible on the premises or at a distance via the Internet.

    "The Médiathèque Nadia Boulanger is a resource center both for the needs of music teaching and for the needs of research, it welcomes students, professors, musicologists, and researchers.

    "Some statistics --

    "Entire Collection:

    88,669 copies
    56,223 unique entries

    "of which, by number of copies :

    42,442 scores
    13,178 books
    9,225 sound documents
    370 videos
    digital resources (Internet sites and CD-ROMs)

    "Available for lending: 45,447 copies

    29,946 scores
    6,822 books about music
    1,584 books about dance, painting, sculpture, etc.
    4,919 compact-disks
    269 Internet sites internet searchable by keywords of the title, author, or subject

    "Available for reading on the premises: over 26,000 documents

    "with a capacity of 32 places, the reading room provides access to three major sections:

    the fonds Nadia Boulanger
    the éditions monumentales
    the reference works

    "Commercial databases -- Grove music online, RISM, RILM, RIPM, JSTOR... -- are available for consultation on the premises.

    "Periodicals Room: 189 titles

    130 music periodicals currently-subscribed, for consultation on the premises.
    59 music periodicals collections, no longer published, also are preserved.

    [http://www.cnsmd-lyon.fr/e.php?lsd=7&tc=5&lang=]

    Some history and description of the conservatoire: [tr. JK]

    "The Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse de Lyon was established in 1980.

    "Administered by the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, the CNSMD de Lyon is an 'établissement public à caractère administratif'. It is managed by a conseil d'administration, the president of which is named by the Ministère. The establishment is the responsibility of the directeur du conservatoire assisted by a directeur-adjoint à compétence administrative, a directeur des études musicales, a directeur des études chorégraphiques and a conseil d'orientation pédagogique.

    "The teaching staff consists of 180 professors, assistants, and accompagnateurs. The administrative and technical staff is composed of 65 persons. Current students include 500 musicians and 80 dancers. Foreign students are 15% of the current total.

    "A public season of nearly 300 performances is an integral part of the teaching program, and allows the school to enrich the talent and the work of its students, professors and invited artists. The partners of the Conservatoire provide the students with professional opportunities. The CNSMD de Lyon is a member of a network of over 40 establishments of higher learning participating in the Socrates / Erasmus system of exchanges, and it also is expanding its projects with institutions outside of Europe. It benefits, for these projects and those of its students, from the contributions of SACEM, ADAMI, SPEDIDAM and the Mécénat Musical Société Générale."

    [http://www.cnsmd-lyon.fr/e.php?lsd=3x12&tc=5&lang=]



So, a great deal is going on in France, digitally and otherwise, regarding music: I am particularly interested, for example, in IRCAM's "Contemporary Music Portal -- In 2007, IRCAM and other organizations with large collections in the domain of contemporary music came together to create a gateway..." --


    * Contemporary Music Portal

    "The contemporary music portal is a search engine for art music resources from 1945 to this day held by French institutions. 209390 biographies, books, music scores, sound recordings, videos. available in 32 databases..."

    [http://www.musiquecontemporaine.fr/]


-- modern music and music research being, like modern engineering and mathematics and medical care and corporate management and seemingly everything else, a cooperative venture, "team"-and-"teamwork"-oriented... This to me is a strange thing, so much so that someone like me raised in an era of Individual Effort -- Horowitz striding out solo upon the stage, all eyes and ears on only him -- feels lost, sometimes, in this era in which everything apparently gets "Shared", or "Liked" or "Friended" or "Linked by Popularity" and so on. So as music becomes a teamwork thing too, perhaps, I will be very interested if still sceptical to learn about its "gateways" and "coming togethers".

But I was thinking initially, here, of a specific performer: my point being that Grimaud the artiste is online -- and to me the question this suggests is whether music institutions such as the above are online too, or are so sufficiently, yet. As with any activity, nowadays, commercial or governmental or any other, if the practitioners and patients and citizens and customers are out there now, out in the cloud and on their mobiles and wherever, how quick to follow will be institutions which train and promote and cater to them, or how slow? And how quick or how slow ought they to be?

Grimaud's initial education took place in France, as I said. Her education since, however, and certainly her practice now of her "profession", and her current "means of distribution", have been and are emphatically global, as she and so many performers have become expert in their use of digital media for music, for performance & production & distribution, discussion, education, research, so many other purposes.

These last are a function, too, of both performer and recorder, as observers since at least Barthes have pointed out: Grimaud has mastered the art of digital media interviews, it seems -- that direct wolf-like gaze into the camera, the sheer intensity of the communication and playing and recording and verbal explanation -- her fans too, though, unlike Lady Gaga's so far although hers as well, are adept at video & audio & editing, a great deal of fascinating presentation and discussion of Grimaud's art online is authored now not by her but by her listeners.

The YouTube result, to give just one example, is a wonderful chance to tour through the entire and ongoing life of this impressive artist: one may find there now full Grimaud performances of the Rach2 and other "greats", with good quality sound if you use the earbuds, backed up with online music scores nearly-instantly available via Wikipedia -- try External Links at the bottom of the articles there, several online places now mount massive varieties of classical music scores online -- also images and maps and texts related to Mozart and Bach and Cöthen and wolves and ashtanga yoga -- all of great help to anyone trying to follow the flying fingers of a Grimaud, or a Horowitz, or a Hilary Hahn.

Classical music perhaps is less for the initiated, today, as is so often said. Perhaps as well, though, as in so many areas, digital access and technique are creating a new generation of initiates now. Just as the salon gave way to the concert hall and the "general admission ticket", so now an artist such as Grimaud may have a performance life online, one similar in some ways to that which preceded it but one also very different.


--oOo--


Note:

For those of us with a great love of music, and an interest in libraries and digital information -- all those databases, all those indexes, and lists, and classifications!... mouth-watering... -- also with any tendency at all to be obsessive-compulsive, here is a weekend project:

If you ever have wanted to put all your Bach into-order by BWV number, to compare or simply enjoy the differences among versions of the same piece on a new recording by Grimaud, a treasured Horowitz, Hahn's amazing fiddle, Dogsounds' Moog... while you are in France, or on Kamchatka, or off the coast of Fukushima taking radiation-readings, or up in Rocinha fleeing bulldozers, or out in Kashgar building railroads, wherever you happen to be... and when-ever, too, as in The Matrix time-zones and national holidays present no barriers...

On iTunes you can make a playlist for each Bnumber and Knumber and so on, sorted automatically by the system, viz.,

B988 Jaccottet
B988 YoYoMa
B1006 Grimaud
B1006 Hahn
B1007 Casals
B1007 YoYoMa
K488 Curzon/LSO
K488 Grimaud
K488 Horowitz

-- then sync that to a music-enabled mobile -- iPhones, and et alia if & when iTunes will do that -- and then compare-&-contrast away!

Obtaining the music itself nowadays is no problem either, if your Kashgar wi-fi connection is good: just download from iTunes, the way everybody else does worldwide now. And the Kashgar local-income-relative prices for all of this, for the music & wifi & iPhone, will be dropping spectacularly, don't worry, from various global factors including Greek bond rates & euro parities & rmb revaluations.


Jack Kessler, kessler@well.com